1. Field
The present disclosure is directed towards antennas and in particular to phased array antennas. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a phased array antenna having a tile architecture.
2. Background
A phased array antenna is a group of antennas in which the relative phases of the respective signals feeding the antennas may be varied in a way that the effect of radiation pattern of the array is reinforced in a desired direction and suppressed in undesired directions. In other words, one or more beams may be generated that may be pointed in or steered into different directions. A beam pointing in a transmit or receive phased array antenna is achieved by controlling the phasing timing of the transmitted or received signal from each antenna element in the array.
The individual radiated signals are combined to form the constructive and destructive interference patterns of the array. A phased array antenna may be used to point one or more fixed beams or to scan one or more beams rapidly in azimuth or elevation.
With phased array antenna systems, the size and complexity of an antenna may be a concern depending on the use. In some uses, the amount of room for the different components in a phased array antenna may be limited. As a result, some phased array antenna designs may be too large to fit within the space that may be allocated for a phased array antenna.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for overcoming the problems described above.